Career of former Stars forward Jamie Langenbrunner in peril after season-ending injury

The career of Blues forward Jamie Langenbrunner, a two-time Stanley
Cup champion and captain of the 2010 U.S. Olympic team, could be over.

Langenbrunner, 37, has a torn labrum in
his left hip and will undergo surgery, which would lead to a five- to
six-month rehabilitation process. It will be the end of Langenbrunner’s
2013 season and possibly his 18-year NHL career.

The winger is working under a one-year,
$1.25 million contract with the Blues, and will become an unrestricted
free agent in June.

“Not exactly the way you envision
things,” Langenbrunner said. “You battle through the lockout, try to get
yourself ready to go and then obviously the body didn’t cooperate. But
it’s something hopefully you get taken care of, hopefully you feel that
much better and you’re able to try going at it next year.”

But a veteran of 1,109 NHL
regular-season games and 146 in the postseason, including Stanley Cup
championships with Dallas and New Jersey, Langenbrunner is aware of the
consequences of having major surgery in the twilight of his career.

During the lockout, while spending time
with his family, Langenbrunner claimed to have overcome the fear of
retirement. He acknowledged Saturday that the possibility exists that he
has played his last game.

“Yeah, you think about it,” he said.

Drafted by Dallas in the second round
in 1993, Langenbrunner is best known for his days with the Stars and
later the Devils. In 1999, he scored 10 goals and had 17 points in 23
postseason games in the Stars’ run to the Cup.

In 2002, Langenbrunner was dealt to New
Jersey, where in his first full season he had a career-best 22 goals in
the regular season and led the NHL in goals (11) and points (18) in the
playoff, guiding the Devils to the Cup.

Langenbrunner returned briefly to
Dallas in 2011 before signing a free-agent contract with the Blues the
following summer. He had six goals and 24 points in 70 games last
season, re-signed with the club this summer, and had one assist in four
games thus far.

The winger said that he had been dealing with pain recently related to the injury.

“For a little while, but something that
was bearable … still had decent power out of there,” Langenbrunner
said. “But now it’s losing its strength and I just don’t have a whole
lot of stability there right now, so (surgery) is something I have to
get done.”

Langenbrunner’s last action was in
Tuesday’s 6-1 loss to Nashville. He saw 10 minutes and 40 seconds of ice
time, didn’t register a shot on goal and was 0 for 2 in the face-off
circle.

“It kind of went numb after the game,
my leg went numb,” Langenbrunner said. “It was hurting, so I got to a
point where I couldn’t handle it, the discomfort, anymore. I’ll sit with
(the doctors) and make a final determination, but it’s pretty certain.”

Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said the situation is unfortunate.

“That’s too bad,” he said. “He’s not
sure when it happened, but I saw it when he was skating during the
training camp. He just got knocked over easily. Then you’re wondering,
‘Is it over?’

“Our last practice, I was watching him
in the competitive side of things and everybody that bumped into him, he
just fell over. So, that’s when he knew something was wrong. He’s not
been even close to where he was last year for us. Now we know why. So
we’ll have to see where it goes.”

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